Troublesome Proposal
by ice illuser
Summary: Sequel to Rokudaime Ceremony. Everyone is married, besides Shikamaru and Ino. Does Shikamaru think marriage is way too troublesome, or does he have other ideas? And what do flowers have to do with this?


Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I sincerely doubt that Naruto would be the main character. But since the entire show _is _titled Naruto, it is safe to assume that I don't own it.

A/N: Due to the strange popularity of Rokudaime Ceremony, and requests from reviewers, I have decided to create a sequel. Hope you like it!

--

"Aw, he's so cute…" said Ino, patting the black hair of the toddler, "and he has your eyes!"

Sakura laughed, and scooped the little boy up, "Oh yes and I'm pretty sure he's the only Uchiha to ever have green eyes."

Ino smiled, "Wasn't Sasuke pleased?"

Sakura laughed again, and smoothed out the toddler's unruly black hair, "Oh yes, he was. But before Shinsei was born, he acted as though I was made out of glass. And let me tell you that was _really _annoying."

"She expressed it by throwing a few kunai at me," Sasuke stated dryly, walking in.

"It was only a few, and you dodged them anyway," Sakura said, pushing Shinsei towards him.

Sasuke crouched, "Come on Shinsei; walk over here to Daddy…"

Shinsei took some hesitant steps, and basically fell into Sasuke.

Ino applauded, "Wow, he can walk now!"

"Yes, he's such a smart boy," said Sakura beaming, "but anyway, enough about us, how are things with Shikamaru?"

"Same old, same old," Ino said shrugging.

"He hasn't popped the question yet, has he?" asked Sakura seriously.

"You would know if he did."

"But…really! It's been about three years since both of you hooked up; he should have picked up the nerve by now!"

Ino shrugged again, "Well, you know Shikamaru. He probably thinks it's too 'troublesome'."

"That would be like him," Sasuke commented, hoisting Shinsei onto his shoulders.

Sakura glared at him, "Shut up, this is a girl's only thing."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes, my cherry blossom, I'm leaving both of you to your important discussion."

Ino giggled as soon as Sasuke left the room, "Did he just call you 'my cherry blossom'?"

Sakura blushed, "I told him not to call me that in public! But whatever. So…have you and Shikamaru ever talked about it?"

"No, it's a bit awkward talking about marriage, you know."

"Shikamaru isn't going to think of it on his own, though. If you give him a bit of a push, maybe—"

Ino shook her head, "Like hell I am. I don't really want to be seen as clingy, so…I'll just wait for now."

"Still, maybe next time you should mention that even Neji and Tenten have gotten married now."

"I'll think about it, but I don't think I'll actually do it. Like I said, he'll think I'm being really clingy or something if I mention it."

--

Shikamaru sighed as he watched Chouji wolf down his portion of the barbeque, "Doesn't Ransou cook for you?"

"Oh yeah, she does, but she can't do barbeque," said Chouji between bites, "So…how are things between you and Ino going?"

"Good….although I'm getting the feeling that she wants to get married," replied Shikamaru in a lazy tone.

Chouji nodded, "Makes sense, you two have been together for awhile now haven't you? And everyone else has gotten married, including me."

"Such a troublesome subject," commented Shikamaru staring at the clouds through the window.

"So you don't want to get married?"

"…not sure. It's way too troublesome to think about," stated Shikamaru.

"You might want to consider it soon; you above all people know how Ino can get…"

Shikamaru shuddered, "Oh yeah…once I just got back from a class B mission from the Cloud country, and she threw a fit that I forgot to bring back one of those fancy scarves."

"Hey, I remember that! That was that time where I thought you had run into an Anbu squad or something, but you had actually just got into a fight with Ino, right?"

"Yeah, she has a wicked temper…"

"But we've always known that."

"How could we not?"

"But still," Chouji said, pushing his empty plate over, "you really should think about it. Even if it's only to avoid Ino's temper."

"If I did propose, it wouldn't be for that reason," said Shikamaru, "It would be for real."

--

"Naruto…" Hinata called from the kitchen.

A yellow blur raced to her side, "What is it Hinata? Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital! Oh my god, my wife is injured, and so is the child she's carrying! This is horrible; I'll have to go really, really, fast—"

Hinata put her hand over his mouth, "Naruto, I'm fine. I just need you to put this on the top shelf," she said, handing him the salt bottle.

Naruto looked at the salt, and then at Hinata, "…you're sure you don't feel bad or anything? If you want to take a break Hinata, that would be fine. I mean, you already bought all the groceries, so I definitely can put them up—"

Hinata shook her head, smiling, "No, it's fine really. Just because I'm pregnant Naruto, doesn't mean I'm delicate."

"Are you sure?" asked Naruto, grimacing.

"Yes," she said as she proceeded to unpack the rest of the groceries, "By the way…have you seen Shikamaru-san lately?"

"Can't say I have. Why?"

Hinata bit her lip, as she shuffled the paper bags away, "Ino looked a bit depressed about something…and I thought that Shikamaru might know why."

"Upset?" Naruto eyebrows bunched up, "Really?"

"Yes, she seems to wince a bit every time she sees a married couple."

"Well, everyone knows how lazy Shikamaru is. If Ino expects to get married soon, she'll have to give him a big push or something."

"Perhaps…but that's not really a good way to begin a marriage, is it?"

Naruto shrugged, and wrapped his arms around her, "You're probably right…it took me a long time to convince myself to propose to you…"

Hinata blushed, and touched his arm, "…so you'll talk to Shikamaru?"

"Since I'm Hokage, sure. It's all for you though."

--

Neji carefully opened the glass door of the Shikon Jewel store, and stopped abruptly when he saw Shikamaru. "…what are you doing here?"

Shikamaru shrugged, and carefully slipped a black box into his pocket, "…just looking I suppose. You?"

Neji looked down, a little bit embarrassed, "Picking up an order." He nodded towards to the old man behind the glass case, who quickly took out a small rectangular pink and gold box, and handed it to Neji.

"What's that?" asked Shikamaru curiously.

"A gift," he said shortly, walking out of the store.

Shikamaru ran out to catch up with him, "Hey, I have a question."

"Really? What?"

Shikamaru ran his hand through his hair, "…how did you propose to Tenten?"

"I don't see how that's your business," Neji stated flatly.

"Look, if I asked Naruto I'd get some long deformed answer. With Sasuke, I can already guess that he went up to Sakura and did a long romantic thing. Chouji hid the ring in Ransou's basket. Everyone else is somewhere else right now, so the only person left to ask is you."

"…I asked Tenten to marry me. She accepted, and there's nothing else left to say," Neji said simply.

A shuriken whizzed right past Neji's head, and Tenten appeared by his side, "Liar. You told that me that we would be getting married in December, and we had a full blown sparring match about it."

Neji calmly gazed at her, "What I said was essentially true, in the end you did accept."

Tenten snorted, and crossed her arms, "He's never going to change. Anyway, Shikamaru…why are you asking Neji of all people about that?"

Shikamaru suddenly began to walk away, muttering, "Oh yeah, I just remembered…I have a meeting with Naruto soon, I should probably finish up everything before…"

Neji and Tenten exchanged looks.

"…he's going to propose to Ino, isn't he?" asked Neji, handing her the box.

"Why else would he ask you about us? Oh….wow," she said, when she opened the box to reveal a set of dangling silver earrings which had small silver and gold dragons twisted around each of the long silver beads.

Neji drew her in, for a hug, "Happy anniversary."

She smiled and kissed him, "And when am I supposed to wear these again?"

"Anytime you want to…although, hopefully mostly at home," he stated.

She laughingly swatted his arm, "Arrogant bastard."

"Maybe so, but you don't seem to mind."

She laughed, and their hands linked together as they walked home.

--

Ino idly picked a violet-red flower from the grass, _Azalea_ _isn't it? Why does it make me feel bad? ...oh yeah, it stands for temperance…and stuff like "take care of yourself for me." Stupid Shikamaru. I know I don't want to be pushy, since I know that I'm generally bossy…but I have to wonder. Your dream was always to have a mildly pretty girl as a wife, not a "troublesome" girl like me. Does that mean…I don't want to think about it. _

Sighing, she quickly tossed the flower behind her.

"Taking it out on the flowers?"

Ino spun around to see Shikamaru standing there, "Oh, hey! I'm not taking anything out on the flowers, I just thought that that one wasn't really pretty enough to go in a bouquet or anything so—"

Shikamaru pressed a finger against her lips, "Is there something you're not telling me, Ino?"

"Not telling you? What would that be?"

"I'm asking you."

Ino bit her lip, and looked down, "…alright, fine. You know that it's been about three years since we've started dating? And that everyone else we know is married?"

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah, I've noted that."

"So yeah…sometimes it's a bit depressing. But you don't have to do anything! Seriously, I already knew that you've wanted to marry a mildly pretty girl with a nice temperament since you were a kid, so it—"

Shikamaru kneeled, and took a black velvet box out of his pocket, and a purple ivy flower, "Ino, will you marry me?"

Ino stared at him, and then frowned, "I just told you that you don't have to do anything! You're not obligated; you can do whatever you want!"

"And this is what I want. So will you?"

Ino took the ivy flower from his hand, "…ivy flowers mean wedded love, you know."

Shikamaru smiled, "And friendship, fidelity, and affection. I looked it up just so I wouldn't end up giving you some flower that meant something horrible."

"It would have been bad if you had given me something like a marigold," Ino said, agreeing.

"So?"

Ino held her hand in front of her mouth, and choked out, "Yes."

He placed the amethyst ring on her finger, and she wrapped her arms around him.

--

Naruto stared at Shikamaru when he came into his office, "…what happened to you? Did you roll around in the grass or something?"

Shikamaru shrugged, pulled some grass out of his hair, and handed some papers to Naruto, "Here are the rest of the Anbu reports."

Naruto sighed, and began signing them without looking at them, "…oh yeah, Hinata said for me to tell you that it might be wise to propose to Ino sooner or later—"

"Already did."

Naruto stared at him then grinned, "Oh so _that's _why you have grass in your hair. Well better off then Sasuke-teme, when he proposed to Sakura-chan, he had a ton of hickies on his neck—"

The captain of the Anbu appeared out of nowhere, and proceeded to hit Naruto over the head, "Dobe."

"I'm not a dobe you friggin' bastard!"

Shikamaru sighed, and just sorted out the rest of the papers, _And life always goes on, _he noted wryly.

_Owari. _

--

A/N: Alright, and that's the squeal! I hoped all of you liked it! Please review, and here are some things that beg to be cleared up.

Meaning of marigold- Cruelty, grief, jealousy.

Shinsei- Rebirth

Ransou- Blue-green algae

The Shikon Jewel shop obviously refers to the jewel of four souls in Inuyasha, which I don't own either.


End file.
